Ten Principles of Good Design, part 3

22 August 2013 by Joey Cofone

L2 Speaker by Dieter Rams / 1958

Dieter Rams, a legendary industrial designer, compiled a list of principles that he followed in his work. Being fans of his, we've kept them in mind while going through the process of designing our first book. Here's how they relate.

We designed the Baron Fig books to be long-lasting in two ways: physically and aesthetically. Physically, the materials in the book are all high quality, hand selected materials. The paper is also acid free so you can archive your books without fear of deterioration. Aesthetically, we designed them to be simple and timeless—they'll look as good on your desk now as they will down the road.

8. Good Design is Thorough Down to the Last Detail

Every single detail has been meticulously designed. We put together a list of the subtleties of the books, but to name a few: opens flat, three types of paper for different people and endeavors, intelligent dimensions for multiple use cases, plenty of pages, acid-free archival paper, twelve perforated pages in the back, and so on. These books are designed by those who use them.

9. Good Design is Environmentally Friendly

All of our books are consciously designed to respect the planet. We use safely harbored natural and synthetic materials that leave as small a carbon footprint as possible. We also have an upcoming announcement in 2014 that will help us and our customers contribute even more to mother nature (you'll have to stay tuned for that one.)

10. Good Design is as Little Design as Possible

In the end, we're designing notebooks—simple, everyday tools that help thinkers like you and us achieve amazing things. They've been around for hundreds of years: a stack of paper with a protective element on the top and bottom. We're not trying to redesign the wheel, we're just trying to make an absolutely usable tool that gets out of your way so you can do your thing.